Adrian Snell of Houston found a geocache hidden by cycling legend Jens Voigt.

Almost the exact minute German veteran Jens Voigt began his ascent of Vail Pass for Stage 5 of the Pro Challenge, one of his fans was celebrating harder than the legions who adore the gregarious cyclist.

Adrian Snell of Houston marched away from the Vail Village start of the time trial, with his daughter on his hip and his GPS in his hand. He walked for almost an hour.
Hidden in the rocks along Gore Creek behind the Vail Cascade Resort, Snell found his hero’s cache: a RadioShack team hat and autographed fall Trek catalogue.

“This is so awesome,” Snell said, digging into the bag and posing for a photo with his not-quite-as-stoked daughter, Jennifer.

Just before his time trial start, Voigt tweeted the GPS coordinates of a treasure cache he left hidden behind his hotel. Voigt is an avid fan of geocaching — a high tech treasure-hunting game with millions of worldwide participants who stash knick-knacks and count each find as a badge of honor.

Voigt often tweets about his geocache finds scheduled during his worldwide training and racing. The 41-year-old obviously wanted his Vail treasure found. He posted precise coordinates and several photos of the area.

“He made it too easy, I think,” said Snell as he sat down to tweet his discovery.

Voigt is a crowd favorite, with more than 139,000 Twitter followers and hordes who crowd his Team RadioShack Leopard Trek bus at races, hoping for a moment with the cycling luminary. Voigt always takes time to pose for photos and sign autographs.

Two days earlier as Voigt led the peloton over Rabbit Ears Pass into Steamboat Springs, he appeared emotional, thanking fans as they cheered him and ran alongside his Trek.

“He’s a legend. He’ll be sorely missed when he retires next year,” said Snell, who was vacationing in Colorado to follow a few stages of the Pro Challenge. “He’s always kind to his fans.”

Cholet, France — A major upset occurred at Tuesday’s Tour de France. I, John Howard Henderson, did not get lost.

The hundreds of cycling journalists who cover this event every year know me well. I’m the one who comes into the salle de presse (press room) every day, frazzled, broken and beaten. My hair is half torn out. My eyes are bloodshot. My heart is racing faster than all of these cyclists.

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David Millar of Great Britain during the third stage near Cholet, France. (AP Photo/Patrice Mollet)

Getting lost is part of the di rigueur at the Tour. However, in four previous years covering this remarkable, beautiful, maddening event, I turned getting lost into an art form. It once took me 45 minutes to get out of a parking lot. Hey, I didn’t know if I was leaving the right way. In France, if you get going in the wrong direction, you’ll be in Pamplona looking for bulls to trample you by the time you know you’re lost.